Read American Icons-The Disney Parks: Welcome to an Alternate Reality Precision-Designed for the Pursuit of Happiness by Kurt Andersen Free Online

Book Title: American Icons-The Disney Parks: Welcome to an Alternate Reality Precision-Designed for the Pursuit of HappinessLanguage: EnglishFormat files: PDFThe size of the: 6.41 MBv
The author of the book: Kurt AndersenEdition: Byliner Inc.Date of issue: February 16th 2014ISBN: No dataISBN 13: No dataCity - Country: No data

Read full description of the books American Icons-The Disney Parks: Welcome to an Alternate Reality Precision-Designed for the Pursuit of Happiness:

“Disneyland,” Walt said when introducing the park, is simply “a place for people to be happy.”

In 1955, Walt Disney mixed up some fairy tales, a few historical facts, and a dream of the future to create an alternate universe. Not just a place for fun, but a scale model of a perfect world. And not just for kids: one-third of Walt Disney World’s visitors are adults who go without children.

Based on the “American Icons” series from the celebrated radio show “PRI’s Studio 360® with Kurt Andersen,” this e-book features actor Tom Hanks (who recently played Disney in the film “Mr. Banks”) reflecting on Disneyland as pilgrimage, futurist Cory Doctorow explaining the genius of Disney World, Carl Hiaasen on Disney vs. the environment, and a backstage tour with a second-generation “Imagineer” who believes his dead mother haunts the Haunted Mansion.

“American Icons: The Disney Parks” takes a broad look at the Disney empire and influence, including a peek inside the lives of residents of Celebration, Florida, a real-life town built in the nineties on the model of Disney’s Main Street.

“This is the deliciousness of the Disney Park in a nutshell: its tension,” says Doctorow, author of “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.” “Tension between commerce and art, tension between the adult and the childlike. Those tensions are what keep the tightrope tight.”

ABOUT KURT ANDERSEN

Kurt Andersen, the former editor of “New York” and “Spy,” has been a columnist at “The New Yorker” and is the author of the novel “Heyday.” Ten years ago, Kurt Andersen and Studio 360—produced by PRI with WNYC—began the “American Icons” series. Each show explored the deep historical and cultural impact of an iconic piece of American art, architecture, literature, or entertainment.

ABOUT PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL AND STUDIO 360

Public Radio International’s mission is to serve audiences as a distinctive content source for information, insights and cultural experiences essential to living in our diverse, interconnected world. Studio 360® is a coproduction of PRI® and New York Public Radio.

ABOUT BYLINER

Byliner is a subscription reading service and digital publisher of award-winning short fiction and nonfiction.

Read information about the author

Kurt Andersen is the author of three novels -- Heyday (a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2008 Langum Prize for historical fiction), Turn of the Century (a national bestseller and New York Times Notable Book), and the new True Believers.

He is also host of the Peabody Award-winning weekly public radio program Studio 360, and a contributing editor to Vanity Fair.

Previously, Kurt was a co-founder and editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Spy, editor-in-chief of New York Magazine, a staff writer at The New Yorker and the design and architecture critic and cultural columnist for Time.

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